It’s mid-October as I write this, and I haven’t made a single cast since fishing the final Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series tournament of the year at the St. Lawrence River. Kari and I have been on the run five to six days a week, taking our kids to their ball games and to practice.
Brook plays softball, Dustin plays baseball and both are on traveling teams. On days when the kids don’t have a game or practice, they want to play catch or practice hitting.
I’ve really enjoyed having so much fun with my family, but it’s time to get back into fishing. I hope I remember how to cast.
I’m about to go on a three-day fishing binge to California with my good friend Chad LeBlance. I included him in a previous column when he and I took our boys sturgeon fishing here in Idaho.
The first stop will be at Shasta Lake in northern California, which is full of spotted bass. Chad has been live-scoping a bunch, something I need to get better at. Since he has the same Garmin setup in his boat as I have in mine, it should help me get in tune with this technology.
October is typically a tough time of year everywhere because the bass are in their fall transition. It will be all light line finesse fishing at Shasta.
We’ll stick with our spinning rods the next day when we launch at Lake Oroville, which is similar to Shasta. This will be nostalgic for me. I grew up fishing Oroville and competed in my first tournament there. I’ll continue with my crash course in forward-facing sonar while we’re there.
The next day, we’ll be at Clear Lake. I’ll help Chad practice for an annual Yamamoto Open Team tournament. Only Yamamoto baits are allowed in that event. I’ll be working the tournament as the MC. It will be fun to ask the anglers on stage how they caught their bass and what Yamamoto baits they used to catch them.
This trip will help me get back in tune for the World Bass Enterprise’s tournament on Tennessee’s Old Hickory Lake. I’ll be flying to Nashville the day after the Yamamoto tournament to start practice. The top 30 Elite Series pros and the top 30 pros from another circuit have been invited to compete.
I’m thinking a ChatterBait, a small buzzbait, a squarebill and flipping laydowns are the way to go. I won’t know for sure until I get on the lake.
